Business Ideas?

Question

Hi there i am 15 and i am going to be maing a business as part of my business course but the business is outside school so the things i can do arnt so limited, i am hoping that some of you can give me some ideas, i don't want people to say car wash or somthing because that's obviously not a business, if i manage to make a decent business i get a young enterprise award so please help and thank you to anyone that does

Answer 1

don't be so quick to judge. You can reinvent the wheel and try to come up with a new idea or you can take an existing idea and make it better. The car wash for instance. What problems are there with car washes? What could you do to make it better? How could you change it to raise more revenue?

I see the high school kids out trying to raise money for their groups or projects and I would really like to help them out but I also want a decent car wash for the money. What if you organized the group and trained them how to wash a car the right way (like a commercial wash does), get a primo location, and provide an incentive for the customers like a free wash next week? Business is not about new ideas, it is about new ways to make money.

Answer 2

A car wash IS a business, but obviously not what you had in mind.

Do you want to provide a service?
Do you want to sell a product? (Can you make that product?)
Do you want to sell advice/knowledge/etc. as a consultant?

Those are your three basic types right there.

If you can sew, you can start an awful lot of different things. I've got a small side business making catnip toys. In the past two weeks I got a 300 toy order for wholesaling to a website on the west coast, and a 400 toy order for a lady who sells items at cat shows in Chicago. Over the past 6 months I've been making enough just with the cat toys, on my off hours, to pay my car payment each month. It's word of mouth mostly, but the business is steady all summer.

Is there something you can do artistically--say making Xmas cards in sets?

Doing bird seed items like peanut butter dipped pine cones then rolled in sunflower seeds and small bird seed? Packaged as a pair or group of 6 they'd be great items for the fall.

The field is wide open. You have a product or skill, then find your market (niche market, they're very good!) and begin being an entrepreneur.

Answer 3

My husband and I bought a hot dog cart. We are still fixing it to comply with DHEC standars, but if you sell boiled peanuts, there are no real safety standards.
Your teacher could still help you find where to get the safety standards in your state.